What Happens Next?
So I’m thinking that everyone’s excited about Christmas and
then New Year’s, right? And then along comes January 2nd…and the big
let-down. But it doesn’t have to be that way. No. Because I’ve decided to send two
of you a copy of my new book Nearest Thing to Heaven to lift that
mood again. Once you meet Sophie, Ty, and the four-year-old triplets, I
seriously believe you’re going to be smiling again.
Leave
me a comment, and you’ll automatically be entered into the drawing. You can
choose between digital—Nook or Kindle—or a printed ARC. I’d love to hear from
you. I'll draw for the winners on January 2, 2014.
Nearest Thing to Heaven
is the second book in my Maverick Junction series, and we get
to spend more time with all the gang we met first in Somebody Like You. Can’t
Stop Lovin’ You, the third book in the series, will be released
February 4, 2014.
With the
holiday season fast approaching. Sophie London finds herself back in Maverick
Junction, Texas, for her cousin’s wedding to Cash Hardeman and runs headlong
into Ty Rawlins, the widowed father of rambunctious triplets. Sophie, owner of
Stardust Productions, believes in fairies and magic. Long-horned cattle,
wide-open spaces, and three-year-olds with fishing worms dangling from their
poles are enough to make any city girl run all the way back to Illinois in her
Jimmy Choos. Ty, busy with the day-to-day duties as single daddy and owner of
the Burnt Fork Ranch, has no time for romance. He’s had love and lost it. Yet
he finds himself thinking of Sophie night and day. Can Ty convince both himself
and Sophie that Maverick Junction is where she belongs, right beside him and
his boys?
Here’s a little excerpt you might
relate to right about now. Ty, Sophie, and the boys are out searching for that
special Christmas tree:
An hour
later, Sophie still hadn’t lost her silly grin. They’d found the tree. All of
them circled it, studying it from every angle. The pine was beautiful, its
shape and size absolutely perfect.Even the horse ride had been enjoyable. She’d felt safe on Molly today. Comfortable.
Sophie scuffed her booted foot over the ground. The snow wasn’t deep, and random bare spots stuck out. It wasn’t Chicago snow by any means. But it lay over the earth like a thin layer of icing. The air was cold, but a long way from frigid.
Ty moved
back to his horse to retrieve the ax he’d brought along. Sophie had a momentary
pang at the idea of actually murdering the tree. When she whispered that to Ty,
he stared at her, incredulous.
“You’ve got
to be kidding.”“Not really.” She wrung her hands.
He shifted
the ax to his other hand. “Sophie, I can’t—”
“I know. The
kids will get such a kick out it, and it’ll bring far more enjoyment in your
home than out here. Blah, blah, blah. Go ahead. I just won’t watch.” She put a
hand over her eyes. “And I’m being silly, aren’t I?”
“You’re
being you.” He kissed her forehead.
“Daddy
kissed Sophie!”
The shrill
pronouncement brought echoes from the other two, who picked it up as a chant.
“Daddy kissed Sophie, Daddy kissed Sophie.”
The triplets
danced around in the snow, their noses red.“Uh-oh,” Sophie muttered. “Now you’ve done it.”
“You think?” Grin devilish, Ty turned to the boys. “Want me to do it again?”
“Uh-huh! Do it again!”
Before she
realized what he was up to, Ty wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her in.
His lips covered hers in a not-quite-chaste kiss.
She laughed
and pushed at his chest. “Bad Daddy!” she said, low enough for only him to
hear.“Mmmm.” He smacked his lips together. “Good Sophie. Sweet as sugar.”
“Go cut down
that tree, Paul Bunyan.” She ran over to the boys. “Have you ever made snow
angels?”
Ty swung the
ax, but his attention wasn’t on his work. Sophie and the boys lay in the snow,
waving their arms and legs, making angels. One by one, his sons gave it up to
throw themselves over Sophie, who drew each one in with little tickles.
He looked at
the angels they’d created and thought of Julia. Blinking snow from his eyes, Ty
lifted his gaze Heavenward. Imagined her up there watching their boys playing
with Sophie. Was she smiling or shedding tears?
Pressure
built in his chest. Conflicted? Oh, yeah. Talk about a tug of war. He felt
trapped somewhere between the past and the present, unable to reach toward a
future.
Damned if he
knew whether he and his boys were headed for something wonderful or standing in
the path of a tsunami-force heartbreak. He swung again, his ax biting deeply
into the pine.
Question: Do you have any special
rituals that take some of the hurt away when it’s time to take down that
beautiful tree? Leave me a comment and share—anything you want about anything—and
I’ll enter you into the drawing for one of the two copies of Nearest Thing to
Heaven!
Hope you can
join Ty, Sophie, and me in Maverick Junction, Texas, for Nearest Thing to Heaven,
book two of my series. Come visit me at
my website www.authorlynnetteaustin.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
